With TMG Version 8, the user has the ability to add more than one
person at a time by importing a text file containing the information to
be imported. This is done through the Add New Person menu option
function. There are basically two ways in which this may be done:

Add a Family

One family may be imported at a time. In this case, a family will
consist of a Father, a Mother, one or more Sons, and one or more Daughters.
In addition, one or more Children (of unknown gender [Sex Flag will be set
to “?”]), and/or one or more Other/Unknown persons may be included in the
file. These last will not be added as children to the Father and
Mother. It will be up to the user to construct the familial
relationships for these persons. This provision is made for those
entered a household from a census where the added children and others might
be adopted children, siblings or parents of the Father or Mother, boarders,
servants, etc.

To add a family, select to Add=>Add Person from the Main Menu (or click
on the Add New Person icon on the Toolbar. On the Add Person Type
dialog window, click on the [New Family] button at the lower left to display
the Add New Family window.

You may, of course, add the new family members one line (person) at a
time if you have not already created a file of the persons to be added.
We will assume that you have already created this file (how to create this
file will be discussed below). In any case, you may wish to check that
the fields to be entered and/or the Flags to be set for each person are
included in the entry template. You will do this by clicking on the
[Setup] button.

Once you are ready to import the data file, click on the [Import] button,
navigate to/select the filed to be imported, and click the [Open] button.
This will display the Import window where you will match the Template
columns with your data file columns. Note that this file is a Comma
Separated Value (CSV) and it MAY include a row with header information
(column labels). If it does have a header row, check the option so
that TMG will know to ignore that row.

To match up fields, start with the left list (the Template) and
highlight the first entry in the list and find the corresponding entry in
the right list (your data file) and click on the [< Assign] button. If
there is no match in you data file for the Template field, go to the next
Template entry and match it. Keep matching through the entire list.

If there are fields in the data file that do not have a corresponding
match in the Template, you might consider clicking on [Cancel] and revisit
the [Setup] function again. Otherwise, just ignore the unmatched data
file fields.

After all field matching is done, click on the [OK] button to import the
information from the data file into the Add New Family window. You may
wish to check this to insure that the data went into the proper fields.
This also gives you the opportunity to double-check the data for typing
errors and/or add other data that was not in the data file.

Note that the ID Template field will contain the ID# to be assigned to
the person. This may be changed to any unused ID# desired just as you
may change the ID# of any person being added. Click on any ID entry
field and press [F2] to search for unused ID#s.

One last entry should be your Source Citation(s) in the usual way.

When you are satisfied that the data is complete and correct, then click
on the [OK] button to add the persons in the Template to your data set.
You will be asked if a Marriage Tag should be added to the parents. If
you answer Yes then a Marriage Tag Entry Screen will display in the usual
manner for entering pertinent marriage data. After the Marriage Tag is
added (or not), the process is complete and the Focus Person of TMG will be
changed to one of the Parents.

Add Multiple People

When you begin the process to Add Person Type (of relationships such as
Son, Daughter, Children or Unrelated) you may choose the option to Add
multiple people of this type at once. After you select this option
and then select the type of relationship to be added, the Add Multiple
People window will display. This window is very similar to the Add New
Family window in that you can enter data for the persons to be added in
lines provided. The Add Multiple People window also has the [Setup],[Import],
and other buttons that function in a similar way to those on the Add New
Family window.

The main difference is that the data entry fields are slightly
changed. A line in this Add Multiple People Template begins with
the ID, Ref, Sex, and Title fields as compared to the Add New Family
Template which begins with the ID, Ref, Relation, and Title fields. Thus
the only difference between the two is the Relation and the Sex fields.
The Sex field is not needed for family persons as the Relation field
defines the sex of the person. But persons added via the Add
Multiple People may or may not be defined by the type of relationship
being entered/imported.

If multiple Sons or Daughters are being entered then the Sex field will
be automatically entered as you manually enter the data. For Children
or Unrelated Persons, TMG will automatically enter the Sex as “?”. In
all of these cases, the Sex may be changed as needed. Note that when
adding multiple sons, if the Sex is changed to F then TMG will accept your
change and add that person as a daughter and will not complain. The
same applies to adding daughters and change the Sex to M.

So, you should select to Add Multiple People of the type of which you
have most. For example, if you are entering ten children to a mother
and/or father, and seven are boys, you should add multiple persons of the
Son type. Then add the daughters as well by changing the Sex for the
three girls.

If you click on the Son, Daughter, or Children type, TMG will prepare to
add the new people to the current Focus Person as one parent and will ask
you to designate the other parent.

As with the Add New Family window, the process for the Add Multiple
People window is the same. You enter people manually or you may import
then from a textual data file in the appropriate format. As with Add
New Family, the Template is controlled by the [Setup] button. When you
click on the [Import] button of the Add Multiple People window, you will see
the Import window in which you may match fields from your data file to the
corresponding field of the Add Multiple People template. As before,
select if the data file has a header row. When all fields are matched,
click on the [OK] button and the people will be imported to the Add Multiple
People Template.

Again, you may now review the data for correctness including correct
field placement and any other changes additions that you wish to make.
Again add your Source Citation(s), and then click on the [OK] button to add
the multiple people to your data set.

Creating Family and Multiple People
Data Files

The easiest way to create a data file of a family or of multiple people
of a type is to use a spreadsheet. You may download the
Add People file as an example of such a
spreadsheet. The Add People.XLS file is an example of a household (a
family) that might be found in a census. It could also be used as an
example of Add Multiple People of a type. The spreadsheet has both a
Relation column and a Sex column. You would match Relation to the Add
Family Import window field or match Sex to the Add Multiple People Import
windows during the actual import process.

Keep in mind that you could have many more columns in your spreadsheet
than are available in the import window for Add Family or Add Multiple
People. Similarly, you can (using [Setup]) add Tags, Flags, and/or Tag
fields to the import window. For example, the default is the Primary
Name (a Name-Var(iation) Tag, a Birth Tag, and a Death Tag. You might
want to add the Burial Tag, a Census Tag, an Occupation Tag, and/or some
other Tag. For each Tag Type, you may choose the default fields that
may be imported. The next section lists the fields for Name and event Tag
Types.

The Add People spreadsheet has a header containing most field in which
data might be entered and matched to the import Template. However,
there may be other fields (including Flags) that the user may wish to
include. These may be added to the Template through the [Setup] button
for TMG. And the user may add appropriate columns in the spreadsheet
as needed.

Note that while the Add People spreadsheet follows the Templates in TMG
in the order of manual entry of data, that is not required since you will
match columns of one to the other in the Import window. So, if you
find that it is easier to enter data in the spreadsheet in a different
sequence then that is fine.

When the data has been entered in the spreadsheet, I would suggest saving
the data in your program’s native format (XLS for Excel). This allows
easier re-opening if you need to make changes, add more data, wait until
later, or whatever.

When you are ready to import the data into TMG, you must save the data in
Comma Separated Value (CSV) format. A CSV file is really nothing more
than a plain text file with columnar data being separated by commas.
If a field for a column is blank, the comma that would normally separate
data for that field from the next would still be entered. Thus, two
commas together would indicate a blank field. If there are commas
within the data of a field, then the data is output to the CSV file within
quotation marks in order to retain field separation. Note the Memo
data for the birth of the one child.

Also note that the doctor delivering the child and performing the
C-section is included in the data. Again, the data could be for
unrelated people and that he is included with the intention of making him a
Witness to the child’s Birth Tag. Or, he could be living in the
household for the census purposes and happened to deliver the baby.

Much can be entered in data files and the appropriate method of import
will depend on the Source(s) giving the data. Keep in mind that when a
Source Citation is added to an import process, that source applies to ALL
persons and each data field. Thus the notation of C-section would not
be found in a census record. Thus that information would not normally
be included in the data file, but would be added later to the Tag with its
own Source Citation.

Entering data in a spreadsheet is really not much different than entering
the same data in the Add Family or Add Multiple People windows. The
advantage of entering data by importing a file into TMG is that you may have
access to a text file of some kind. In that case, the Import process
can save entering data through the keyboard.

The disadvantage of importing people via data files is that while Source
Citation(s) may be included, Surety Vales are NOT entered. So, if you
use Surety Values, you would want to go to each person imported and edit
each Tag to add the appropriate Surety Values. You may need to be
editing many of the Tags anyway.

Now this disadvantage can be alleviated by the use of
John Cardinal's TMG Utility. Be aware that that the TMG Utility
will only assign a single Surety Value for a Source. So if you
wish different values for different data then you may want to consider
just manually assigning the Surety Values. Also, if the Source has
been used previously, the TMG Utility usage may not be desired if the
Value assigned or not assigned before is different. The Utility
does have a 'blank surety only' option that may help in this regard.
Finally, you may prefer that a large majority of Surety Values be one
value and a few a different value. In this case, it may be
worthwhile letting the Utility set all to the greatest usage and then
individually going back and changing the few.

Available and Default Tag Fields

Name Tags – The available fields for a Name Tag are
the same as those in a Name Tag Entry Screen. Certain of these fields
are used a lot while some are very seldom used. So, the most used
fields are marked as default fields and others are not so marked. Thus
when you see the entry template for a new person screen then only the
default fields can be entered. If you want to enter data in a field
that is not shown then you need to go to the Setup process and mark that
field as default.

The available Name Tag fields (with the standard defaults marked with
*) are:

* Date

* Surname

Sort Date

* Suffix

* Title

OtherName

Prefix

SortSurname

* GivenName

SortGiven

PreSurname

The Date field is a default; however, Primary name records do not use the
field (usually left blank). But non-Primary name Tags may have a Date
indicating when it was in use (on a certain date or during a date range).

Event Tags – Similar to Name Tags, available fields for
event Tags are the same as in a Tag Entry Screen. Again, many of the
available fields are not marked as default because they are not used much.

The available event Tag Fields (with the standard defaults marked with *)
are:

Role (Defaults to Principal)

* State

* Date

* Country

Sort Date

Postal

Addressee

Phone

* Detail

LatLong

* City

Temple

* County

Memo

The Addressee, Detail, City, County, State, Country, Postal, Phone, LatLong,
and Temple fields are the standard place fields of a Tag Entry Screen.
So data for those fields should be entered with this in mind. That is, a
Birth Tag Detail field might be used to enter a hospital name rather than some
remark about the birth. A remark about an event would be entered in the Memo field.

As the Role field implies, if no Role is specified then the Principal Role
will be used. If the Role is marked for use, the import will expect an
entry of a valid (for that Tag) Role name. A drop-down list is available
in the Import window for the Role field showing the valid Roles if you wish to
check the correctness of the assignment for that Tag and person.

Sort Dates are not normally entered, but may be and thus are available
although not by default. If you may much data that does not have a Date
but that you want properly sequenced chronologically, you may want to consider
using the Sort Date as a default field.